Self-dumping car.



No. 805,517. PATENTED NOV. 28, 1905.

P. R. 6L J. L. BANNON.`

SELF DUMPING CAR. APPLICATION FILED Nov. 27, 190s.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

No. 805.517. PATENTBD NOV. 28, 1905. P. R. & J. L. BANNON.

SELF DUMPING CAR. APPLICATION FILED Nov. 27, 190s.

Affi

N0. 805,517. PATETED NOV'. 28, 1905.

P. R. & J. L. BANNON. SELF DUMPING OAR.

` APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 27, 1903.

3 SHEETS-SEEBT 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK R. RANNON AND JAMES L. BANNON, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS.

SELF-DUIVIPING CAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 2S, 1905.

Application filed Nvembel' 27. 1903.v Serial No. 182.875.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, PATRICK R. BANNON and J AMES L. BANNON, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Joliet, in the county of WV ill and Stateof Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Dumping Gars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means for constructing railroad road-beds ofdirt, stone,&c. or for conveying and dumping such material to form aroadway for any purpose; and it consists generally of a series or trainof selfdumping cars which are coupled together, provided with suitabletrucks, and constructed with bottoms and sides formed of short sectionsfiexibly coupled together to form an endless conveyer, which is adaptedto travel over suitable pulleys, wheels, guides, or other supports andto convey the filling material to the rear end of the train, where it isautomatically dumped upon the road-bed under construction.

The especial objects attained by our invention are the conveying of thefilling material commonly used in the construction of roadbeds from thesource of supply to the point where it is required and the dumping ofsuch material directly on the road-bed, whereby much of the grading nowdone by hand-shovels is saved.

A further object is to provide means whereby the entire train-load offilling material may be conveyed to the end of a track laid to the edgeof a gully, ravine, marsh, Sac., and

' dumped at suchpoint, thus providing a fill or foundation upon whichthe track may be extended, and the operation repeated until the work iscompleted, thus avoiding the erection of trestles or the use of falsework, the frequent laying and raising of temporary or constructiontrack, and other expensive expedients. 1 4

An additional object is to provide carrying means that may be loaded orfilled at the top in any well-known manner and, if desired, may beunloaded at the sides with shovels in the usual way instead ofautomatically at one end of the train as especially provided by ourinvention. v

A further object is tosecure a conveying and dumping ldevice that may beeasily moved over a track from a point of supply of the filling materialto the place where such material is to be utilized.

In this application for patent we have shown our invention as applied tocars adapted to travel over railway-rails; but it will be apparent thatthe same principles may be utilized in connection with trucks mounted ontraction-wheels. It will also be'plain that the supporting-beams, whichconstitute thel frame on which the conveyer travels, will permit ofvaried treatment as to size, material, shape, and arrangement, allwithin the scope of the essential features of our invention. Tetherefore do not wish to be understood as confining our invention to theexact construction and arrangement shown herein, but intend that thisapplication shall be a preferred exempliication of the principles of ourinvention.

In the accompanying drawings we have.

shown our invention which- Figure l shows in side elevation three carsconstructed according to our invention combined with an engine of anordinary form for transmitting motion to the conveyer which constitutesthe car-floor. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the cars shown in Fig. l. alongitudinal section of one car and the end of the adjacent carconstructed according to our invention and on a larger scale than Figs.l and 2. Fig. 4 is a cross-section on the lines 4 4 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 isa detail showing the rod-and-pinion gearing which is utilized in ourinvention as a feature of the driving means. Fig. 6 is a detail in plan,on an enlarged scale, of a portion of the driving devicesvwhich aresecured to the under side of the car-floors and which, with therod-andpinion gearing and intermeshing sprocketwheels, cause the travelof the car-sections. Fig. 7 is a detail showingthe method of supportingthe car-floor at the dumping end of the train.

Referring to the details of the drawings, 8 represents the cross-sillsof the car-frame, which are suitably supported on axles and wheels andto which are bolted the uprights 8a and the longitudinal sills 8b.Connected to the uprights about midway their top and bottom aretransverse iron beams 8c, and at the upper ends of the uprights arechannel-beams 8d, which extend longitudinally with the frame and serveas guides for the sides of the car-floor. Supported on the cross-sillbeams in a series of views, of

8 are I-beams 9, which extend longitudinally of the car and furnish asupport for the L- Fig. 3 is y IOO' IIO

bars 9, in which are suitable bearings for the shafts, on which aremounted the series of grooved rollers 10. Secured. to the upper fiangesof the cross-beams 80r are short lengths of I-beams 11, to the upperflanges of which are bolted L-bars 11, in which are bearings for theshafts of the grooved rollers 12.

To malle the frame rigid and strong and provide bearings for shafts tobe described, there are bolted to the beams 11 wooden beams 13, whichextend longitudinally of the car and have bolted to them the upperportions of uprights 8. Secured to the center of the cross-sills 8 arecoupling-heads 14:, which may be of any desired pattern and have adaptedthereto any suitable form of coupling whereby two cars may be 'exiblysecured together. Supported on the under side of the midway beams 8 arepillow-blocl s 15, which provide bearings for the shafting 18", by whichpower is transmitted from one car to the other. The car-bodies are ofthe general gondola form; but the fioors are constructed from plank inshort sections 16, near the ends of which are suitably secured the ironplates 17f, which form the sides of the car and correspond in width tothe floor-sections- Bolted to the under side of each car-licor sectionare short rails 16, the downwardly-depending web of which fits thegrooved periphery of the rollers 12, thus forming guides and supportsfor the Hoor-sections which are loaded. To the upper sides of theHoor-sections are bolted rails 16, ycorresponding to the length of suchsection, the web of which fits the grooved face of the rollers 10, whichthus support the sections of the floors that have been unloaded. To theunder side of the can floor and alongI the center of same are boltedplates 17, each of which is formed with rounded teeth 17 along itssides, with a pair of lugs 17 at one end and a single lug 17C at theopposite end, and said lugs have openings therethrough forcoupling-pins. The lugs 17 of one plate are coupled to the single lug17c of the adjacent plate by the coupling-pin 17d as clearly shown inFig. 6. ltwill be understood that each of these plates corresponds inlength to the length of one of the fioor-sections, so that thecoupling-point is at the edge of each section. The plates 17 constitutea series of links in an endless belt, through which power is applied tothe under side of the floor of the car-sections from sprocket-wheels,which mesh with the teeth of the plates. The door-sections are alsosecured together by hinges 17, as shown in Fig. 41.

Extending' transversely of the cars, near the ends thereof, and mountedin suitable bearings in the frame are shafts 18, on which are mountedsprocket-wheels 19 and beveled pinions 20. Arranged between theoppositelyplaced beveled pinions 2O are smaller beveled pinions 18,which are fixed on the opposite cnds of the shafts 18]. It will benoted, as shown in Fig. that the pinion 18 on one end of the shaft 18 ofone car meshes with only one of the adjacent beveled pinions 20, thustransmitting motion thereto and driving the transverse shaft 18, onwhich said pinion 2O is mounted, whereby the opposite pinion 2O on thesame shaft 18 is driven and communicates its power to the beveled pinion18fL on the shaft 18b on the next car in the train, thus transniittingpower from one car to the other. The sprocket-wheels 19 are so spaced onthe shaft 18 as to engage the teeth 17l1 of the plates 17, thus causingthe floor-sections to traverse the length of each car and of the wholetrain. At the outer ends of the first and last cars of a train composedof cars constructed as above described are mounted drums 20, having sixflat sides which correspond in length to the length of thefloor-sections and furnish supports for such sections when they turn todump their contents at the unloading end of the train and when theyreturn from their inverted or dumped to their upright position at thefront end of the train, as shown in Fig. 1. These drums are mounted onthe shafts 18, that carry the sprocket-wheels 19, and are arranged onopposite sides of such wheels and also near the ends of the shafts, soas to furnish a support for the floor-sections at the center and nearthe ends of the latter. The engine 21, mounted on the separate car Q1,may be of any desired construction and is used to drive the shaft Q2,which inturn, through suitable intermeshing beveled gears, drives theshafts 25, carrying beveled pinions which intermesh with the beveledwheels 20 on the ends of a shaft 18, suitably mounted at the end of thetrain. It will be understood that the gears 2O and the shaft 18 andshaft Q3, with its pinions, will be arranged on both end cars of thetrain, so that an engine for driving the conveyer may be applied ateither end, as may be most convenient. 1t will be also understood that atrain made up of cars of the character described will be hauled over arailroad-track by any suitable locomotive, which will be coupled to thetrain at the end opposite the dumping-car.

1n operation a train of cars embodying the features above set forth maybe filled at the top by any suitable loading apparatus, the cars beingmoved past the loading-point as fast as they are filled. When all thecars are full, the train will be pushed rear end first by a locomotiveto the place on the road-bed to be filled, when the rear or dumping carwill be run out as far as the road-bed will permit, whereupon the engine21 will be started, thus moving the conveyer-sections of the loaded carstoward the rear end of the train, where as the sections turn about thedrum on the outer end of the last car the material will be dumpeddirectly on the right of way or roadbed under construction. When the bedhas IOO IIO

been lled to the desired grade at one point, new rails will be added atthe end of the track to permit the continuation or extension of thefilling operations as before until the work is completed.

I/Ve have not shown in detail the construction and arrangement of thedriving means for the car or conveyer sections, because it is manifestthat various methods may be adopted for applying` power to such sectionsto cause them to traverse a train.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to obtainby Letters Patent, 1s-

l. 1n mechanism of the class described, cars provided with suitabletrucks and coupled together to form a train each of said cars providedwith sectional and movable sides and iioor, the iioor composed of aseries of sections hinged to each other, and the fioor of one carconnected with the iioor of the adjacent car.

2. In mechanism of the class described, cars provided with suitabletrucks and coupled together to form a train, each of said cars providedvvith a floor composed of a plurality of movable sections eachconsisting of a bottom plate and side walls, said sections hingedtogether to form an endless belt extending the length of said train,means for causing said sections to traverse said train, and means for isupporting said sections when load ed and when j unloaded.

3. In mechanism of the class described, a train composed ofl a series ofcars, each of which is provided with movable and sectional sides andbottom connected to form an endless belt extending the length of thetrain and the end cars of the train also provided with rotatable drumsover which said endless belt travels, and means for driving said belt.

4. In mechanism of the class described, a

-series of cars cou pled together to form a train,

motion 'and means for transmitting motion to said sides and bottom.

5. In mechanism of the class described, a series of cars flexiblycoupled together to form a train, each car consisting of longitudinaland transverse beams joined together to form a rigid frame, and of sidesand bottom composed of a plurality of short sections extending the fullwidth of the car, said sections iiexibly connected together, toothedplates secured to the underside of the floor-sections, toothed wheelsmounted on said frame and engaging the teeth of said plates, and meansfor driving said toothed wheels.

6. In mechanism of the class described, cars coupled together to form atrain, each car consisting of a suitable frame mounted on trucks, and ofsides and bottom formed in sections flexibly connected together, and thesections composing the floor of one car flexibly connected with thecorresponding sections of the adjacent Hoor so as to form a continuousbelt, and means for causing said sections to traverse the length of thetrain consisting of toothed plates secured to the bottom of thefloor-sections, of toothed wheels engaging the teeth of said plates andmounted on shafts extending transversely of said cars, and means fortransmitting motion to said shafts consisting of drive-rods andintermeshing gears, substantially as described.

7 In a train of theclass described, a series of intermediate cars eachcomposed of a frame sup ported lon a truck, of mobile floor and sidesformed in sections and the floor-sections iexibly connected together,end cars coupled with the intermediate cars and composed of a frame ofmobile fioor and sides formed in sections and the floor-sections coupledtogether' and to the corresponding sections of the intermediate cars,and means mounted on the end cars for supporting the sections at theirturningpoints.

In testimony whereof we afhx our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

PATRICK R. BANNON. JAMES L. BANNON.

Titnessesz THos. P. LENNON, J. R. LENNON.

